I can’t believe they’re still awake. And for that matter, myself included.

I have not had a single solitary drop of cawfee all day and I’m already jonsing for tomorrow’s cuppa. Jamie and I have started drinking cold green tea during the day in the hopes of ingesting more liquids (we have not yet, after close to a year, been able to drink Enough Liquid in a day) so my day started with Green Tea. Jamie, of course, had iced cawfee. We loaded up the van with the perishables (which spent the night in the A/C of the bodega) and were on the road by 6:45. For people who rarely leave our trailer before 9am, that’s pretty bleeping early. We had an amazingly rapid journey and figure it took only 3.5 hours to get to Majahual. We expected a journey of 5 hours, so that was a lovely surprise.

We saw ocassional broken tree tops after Tulum, but it wasn’t until just after Felipe Carillo Puerto that we were stunned silent with the obvious effects of hurricane wind. There were occasional missing roofs but much reconstruction had begun and all the towns, Limones included were bustling with activity and commerce. It looked like a hurricane had definitely hit, but that life was very much on the road back to Normal. We had forgotten the Guia Roji (road atlas) at the trailer so I relied on memory to take the correct roads. As it was, memory would have been futile as road signs were completely leveled after Limones. We gawked at the gigantic ceiba tree which was no more, but again, Limones, although much harder hit, and with obvious damage, seemed to have a return of commerce and people were bustling about. We found the road to Majahual and only had to turn around once after bypassing the downed sign and were happily surprised to find that the destruction was not as catastrophic as we’d feared. It was 50 or 60km of road to the sea and Majahual, however, and the winds must not have been Cat 5 at that point.

We were absolutely stunned by Majahual. The town looks like it was recently, like Yesterday, hit by a Category 5 hurricane. Sand still fills vacant retail space. The road was rebuilt only 3 days after Dean devistated the area and shows signs of wear. The pictures really speak for themselves and I am still horrified by the absolute destruction. Concrete fares better than wood but some concrete structures were blown over and ripped apart and some wood structures fared ok. We drove in and out of town a couple times trying to figure out where to find people organizing relief and finally found ourselves at the Costa Maya Inn who directed us to another hotel where all the clothing and dry goods were being stored for townsfolk to pick up or be delivered after sorting. It was then suggested we find the tienda comunitaria (common in small towns) to drop off the food.

I’d had visions of the kids bringing the food we’d sorted and bagged directly to those needing it, but I figured if someone needed food, they’d go to the tienda anyway, so off we headed with vague directions ending in, “then ask someone where it is”. On the way we simply HAD to pass some food out; it felt inhumane not to and it turned out to be the correct choice as the tienda comunitaria suggested we simply hand the food out. No-one ever mobbed us, demanded anything or pressured us. Twice, when people noticed the kids handing bags out, approached me, cautiously, and asked if they might have some too. I so wished I could have carried the store with us. It felt like such an insignificant drop in the bucket. We finally gave out all our bags, but unfortunately, it seemed like we were just getting to the really needy ones. Turning home, I remembered the bags of candy we’d bought for the kids and stopped at the school. It looked like some sort of recess was in process and as soon as the boys headed from the van to the school kids began running and yelling, “GRINGOS”. The boys were definitely mobbed but it was very comfortable; no pushing or shoving, but definite ENORMOUS interest in the candy. If only we’d brought more.

All in all, it was an AMAZING opportunity and quite honestly a PRIVILEGE that you, the generous reader, has bestowed upon US to participate in this community of giving. We hope to head back on Saturday and do it all again. THANK YOU for your donations.

If you’d like to give to the people of Majahual, we pay our own gas, travel expenses, Paypal fees, food, etc. and any and all monies will go directly to purchasing food and dry goods for donating directly to those in need. Please email me at jamnkats at gmail dot com for an address to mail a money order or cheque and PayPal bank (funded) donations by clicking the button following and send your donation to dulce@support.net

Remember what 50 pesos (5 dollars) purchases… No donation is too small. I update all income and outgo on this page but if you’d like to remain anonymous, please let me know.

Thank you all!

If you’d prefer to use your credit card, click the following button (you don’t need to be a PayPal member to donate this way) and send your donation to jamnkats at hughes.net

ARGH! I can’t get the buttons to go directly to the correct accounts, but I need cawfee now, so I’ll try to work on it later. Sigh. At any rate, they’ll get you to paypal and you can put the correct addy for either funded or credit card in then. Sorry about that…